Kermode now lives in Brockenhurst with his wife, Linda Ruth Williams, a professor who lectures on film at the University of Southampton and has written The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema and co-edited Contemporary American Cinema.[8] In October to November 2004, they jointly curated a History of the Horror Film season and exhibition at the National Film Theatre in London.[8] Kermode and Williams have two children together — a son and a daughter — who have their mother's surname.[6]

Radio

Kermode began working at BBC Radio 1 in 1993, on a regular Thursday night slot called Cult Film Corner on Mark Radcliffe's Graveyard Shift session.[12] He later moved to Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 morning show. He also hosted a movie review show with Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1 on Tuesday nights called Cling Film.[13] Between February 1992 and October 1993, he was the resident film reviewer on BBC Radio 5's Morning Edition with Danny Baker.

He currently reviews and debates new film releases each Friday afternoon with Simon Mayo on Mayo's BBC Radio Five Live show, which is also available as a podcast (and previously also as a vodcast).

The programme won Gold in the Speech Award category at the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards on 11 May 2009. The judges' citation was:

The winner of the Gold Award made the judges laugh out loud. They found this programme witty and entertaining, cheeky and irreverent, and they admired the sustained passion and energy of its presenters who made listening an effortless and rollercoaster pleasure.[14]

On the Radio Five Live show, Kermode is frequently referred to by nicknames including "The Good Doctor" and listeners also send in names for the double-act of Kermode and Mayo, such as Hinge and Bracket.[15]

Kermode is also a resident film critic and presenter for Film Four and Channel 4 television, presenting the weekly Extreme Cinema strand. He also writes, researches and presents documentaries for Channel 4.[9] As of April 2008, Kermode has started a twice-weekly video blog hosted on the BBC website, where he posts clips of himself talking about films and telling anecdotes.[18]

Kermode is sometimes critical of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the censor for film in the UK, calling for horror films from abroad to be shown in their uncut versions. However, in recent years, he has stated on numerous occasions that the BBFC do a good job in an impossible situation, and expressed his approval of their decisions.[33]

Opinions

Kermode's appreciation of genre cinema is not always in line with popular taste: he has a personal dislike for all three Pirates of the Caribbean films[34] and the Star Wars films, which he regards as "a gross infantalisation of the dark hearted 'serious' sci-fi" that he grew up with.[35] Kermode's emphasis on genre cinema has also meant he often expresses a liking for films panned by other critics, such as Basic Instinct 2 (2006)[36] and Lassie (2005)[37] because they follow genre expectations. Kermode has been critical of documentary maker Michael Moore (despite praising his most recent film Capitalism: A Love Story on his radio show) , accusing him of "feeding his own ego".[38]

Kermode rarely watches television, calling it "trivial" and stating that "I have been doing my best to avoid [TV] for the last 20 years."[39] On being challenged by The Observer to watch TV, he admitted "if there's one thing I've learned from agreeing to take up the Observer's TV challenge this summer, it's that an awareness of what's going on in television is probably helpful to an understanding of movies. Worse, it may even be essential".[39]